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PM Abiy announces the ruling EPRDF will soon drop ethnic politics and become a unitary party
26 February 2019 | View comments

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced in a meeting with various representatives of political parties yesterday that the ethnic coalition that he is currently leading, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), will become a unitary party. He said that within the next few months, there will be no Oromo party, no Amhara party, not Tigre party, no Afar party, no Benishangul party, no Somali party

If what PM Abiy says becomes a reality, it will be a major step towards lifting Ethiopia out of the backward tribal politics that is pitting Ethiopia’s ethnic groups against each other.

The prime minister cannot be expected to do everything to rescue Ethiopia from the tribalism cancer that has been eating away at the fabric of our country for the past 3 decades. He has done the heavy lifting so far, but where are the other parties? What are the opposition parties who claim to stand up for Ethiopian unity doing to help?

It is easy to criticize PM Abiy for all the ills in Ethiopia. We have been criticizing him for not taking action to stop Legetafo Mayor Habiba Siraj’s and Milkesa Mitega’s ethnic cleansing campaign under the pretext of creating a green area. The prime minister, indeed, deserves to be criticized for inaction in this case, but where are the various civic and political groups? What have they done to challenge legally, politically, and in the streets to stop the tribal thugs who have infiltrated the ODP?